EDITOR'S NOTE: Irredeemable #1 will be in stores Wednesday, April 1st.

In Irredeemable #1 we are introduced to a world where the Plutonian was the first and greatest superhero. He inspired almost every hero that followed him. Unfortunately something caused the Plutonian to snap. Now the greatest hero the world has ever seen is the worst villain imaginable.

I have to say this was a lot better than I could have imagined it to be. The story uses the classic archetypes of heroes very well. The characters may be new, but due to the archetypes they are recognizable and have a have a feeling of comfort to them. The Plutonian is obviously a take on Superman and we've all seen evil Superman stories, but Irredeemable seems very different from other versions of this kind of story. The Plutonian is very much cold, calculating, and ruthless. Even to the extent that he doesn't pause to kill another hero and his family. One thing a lot of villains fail to show is that they are ruthless. Writers would rather let them talk and explain things than have them do what they plan to do. Mark Waid doesn't do that at all. We don't get much dialogue from the Plutonian. Instead his actions speak plenty for him.

I have to thank Waid for not trying to get us to sympathize with the Plutonian. He was able to establish that this character was suppose to be the best hero ever, but other than that doesn't give us any background on that character. This approach really helps the feeling that this guy is devoid of any positive emotion now. I expect that the reasons for the Plutonian's turn to evil will be explained as the series goes on, but for the first issue it worked perfectly to make it where you had no real attachment to this character.

The art in this book is very well done. The one thing that really stood out to me was the coloring in this issue. It was used perfectly and had a great effect for the tone of this book. All the scenes that took place in the present were dark and all the flashback scenes were much brighter. I'm sure this was intentional. The present was suppose to be dark to reflect the Plutonian turning evil and the past was obviously much brighter because he served as that beacon of light and hope.

Final Word: This is an amazing book! I cannot stress how much I truly enjoyed it. Mark Waid has crafted a tale that has captured my attention and left me wanting more.